At Ground Zero, and across America, 9/11 commemorations help to heal the deepest of wounds

NEW YORK — In a place of loss and renewal, where a raw hole in the earth has been replaced by a serene memorial to the dead and a soaring monument to the future, Americans yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks with tributes, tears and, for some, the first sense of closure.

Victims’ relatives, some too young to remember the timbre of a lost parent’s laugh or the comfort of an embrace, read aloud the roster of all 2,977 people killed that day, along with six who died in the first World Trade Center attack of 1993.

Families lovingly rubbed their hands along names etched in bronze at the edge of twin reflecting pools, the footprints of the fallen twin towers.

President Obama quoted the Bible. Former President George W. Bush invoked the grief of the Civil War.

Amid the tolling bells and moments of silence, some spoke of allowing themselves to move on.

Jessica Rhodes said she would never forget her niece, Kathryn L. LaBorie, a flight attendant on United Airlines Flight 175, which crashed into the south tower. But Rhodes said her family was ready, after a decade, to unclench.

"Today we honor her by letting go of the sadness over losing her and embracing the joy of having known her," she said.

In what has become a national day of mourning, ceremonies were held across the country in churches and firehouses, fields and parks. New Jersey, which lost 746 residents to the 9/11 attacks, hosted events in dozens of communities, from Bergen to Salem counties.

In Shanksville, Pa., where United Airlines Flight 93 went down in a field after passengers stormed the cockpit, Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama laid a wreath at the base of the newly dedicated Flight 93 National Memorial.

The president also briefly met with family members of the 40 passengers and crew members who died. Sandra Jamerson came for her twin sister, Linden resident Wanda Green, 49, a flight attendant who had been nearing retirement.

Jamerson, 59, of Antioch, Calif., will return to the site today, when some remains of the victims will be buried near the memorial.

"It's significant to me primarily because this will be her final resting place," Jamerson said.

At the Pentagon, Vice President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, joined more than 1,200 family members in honor of the 184 victims who died when Americans Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the nation’s military headquarters.

Saluting the sacrifices of America’s service members in Iraq and Afghanistan, Biden paid tribute to the "9/11 generation of warriors."

"Never before in our history has America asked so much over such a sustained period of an all-volunteer force," the vice president said. "So I can say without fear of contradiction or being accused of exaggeration, the 9/11 generation ranks among the greatest our nation has ever produced, and it was born — it was born — it was born right here on 9/11."

Chants of "USA" rose up at ceremonies and sporting events, which paused in reflection of the attacks. Enormous flags were unfurled at Arthur Ashe Stadium, home of tennis’ U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., and at the Mets and Giants games. In East Rutherford, the Jets dedicated the halftime show to those killed on 9/11.

Video: At 8:46am people around the area remember 9/11As we remember the 10th anniversary of September 11, The Star-Ledger had cameras around the state to see what people were doing at 8:46am, the moment the first plane hit the World Trade Center. People visited memorials, services, ate breakfast, and continued on.

The events in New York, New Jersey and Washington D.C. came against a backdrop of intense security following reports, deemed credible but unconfirmed by government officials, of a possible plot to disrupt the anniversary with car bombs.

In an indication of the heightened security, two fighter jets were scrambled to escort an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to New York after three passengers’ repeated trips to the bathroom aroused the suspicions of others on board. The plane landed safely in New York shortly after 4 p.m. The passengers were cleared of any wrongdoing, officials said.

At the World Trade Center, hundreds of police officers ringed the 16-acre site. Sharpshooters stood on rooftops. Even families trying to make it to morning ceremony had difficulty navigating the maze of closures and restricted streets.

When one officer ordered pedestrians to clear a path between the memorial plaza and West Street, some refused to go.

"My brother was killed here," one man told the officer. "I’m not moving."

He was allowed to remain.

Closer in, within the circle of security, family members found a site transformed. Dozens of trees — swamp white oaks grown in New Jersey — surround the reflecting pools in the National Sept. 11 Memorial, which will be open to the public today.

The new One World Trade Center, once called the "Freedom Tower," soars into the sky.

"It’s a beautiful tower," said Justin Duran, a Brooklyn native who was 10 when he heard the news that his grandfather, 61-year-old Winston Grant, had been killed. "I like how it’s not in the same place as the old towers. It’s not taking the place, but it’s starting anew."

For Duran, now a junior at Lynn University in Florida, yesterday marked his first visit to ground zero.

"It’s a milestone," he said. "I wanted to be here for this."

Bergenfield native Peter Negron had been there before. At age 13, two years after the death of his father, also named Peter, Negron read a poem during the second anniversary of the attack. Yesterday, that young boy, now a 21-year-old man, spoke again.

"I wish my dad had been there to teach me how to drive, ask a girl out on a date, and see me graduate from high school. And a hundred other things I can’t even begin to name," he said.

Negron, a college student studying forensic science, said he also wished his father could see him today.

"I hope that I can make my father proud of the young men my brother and I have become," he said. "I miss you so much, dad."

The children of 9/11 were featured throughout the ground zero ceremony. Some were just babies when the towers fell. Nicholas Gorki wasn’t even born. Yesterday, he spoke of his father, "who I never met because I was in my mother’s belly."

"I love you, father," he said. "You gave me the gift of life, and I wish you could be here to enjoy it with me."

As the reading of the names progressed, the crowd thinned, migrating to the memorial pools.

There, on the bronze rim, 14-year-old Anne Keyes of Manhattan found the name of her mother, Carol Demitz, who had been a lawyer working in the South Tower.

"I came because I wanted to honor her and make her proud," the teen said.

Margie Dunston arrived with relatives after a six-hour bus ride from her home in Richmond, Va., to mourn her uncle, Stanley Temple, 76, who worked in shoe service at Cantor Fitzgerald. She continues to mourn, but she said she was comforted by the memorial. She said she also found solace in the death of Osama bin Laden earlier this year.

"They got the person who was the main cause of all this," Dunston said. "It brings closure."

Elsewhere, it was a day of prayer for some, service for others.

In Edison, volunteers descended on the New Jersey Veterans Memorial Home of Menlo Park, where they planted flowers outside the home. Some painted murals for the veterans. Others danced with residents, recorded their life stories or snapped portraits.

"All across New Jersey, all across the country, this is becoming a day of service," said Brian Dean, the executive director of Jersey Cares, which organized the event.

The organization mobilized 1,200 volunteers, who worked at 35 sites in 12 counties on a range of tasks, all of which seemed, to participants, to be the best way to commemorate and give back.

John Malindowski, a World War II veteran who later served as a New Jersey state trooper and deputy U.S. Marshal, said he appreciated all the volunteers were doing.

"I give a lot of gratitude to them for the work they’re putting in," Malindowski said, seated in an electric wheelchair. "That’s what this country is all about."